


Time of Dragons

by Tarlan



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Angst, Future Fic, M/M, Merry Month of Masturbation Challenge, Reincarnation, Trope Bingo Round 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-21
Updated: 2014-05-21
Packaged: 2018-01-26 01:19:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1669415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For a thousand years Merlin has been waiting for a sign.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time of Dragons

**Author's Note:**

> Written for:  
>  **Trope Bingo** Round 3: immortality/reincarnation  
>  **MMoM 2014** DAY 21

The first time Merlin caught Arthur alone in his four-poster bed with his hand wrapped around his hard cock, they had both been so embarrassed that neither could look the other in the eye for days. Yet that night Merlin had retired to his small bed down in Gaius's chamber and the memory he had conjured up in his mind was so sharp and sweet that it swept him away in pleasure almost as soon as his hand touched his own hard flesh.

The second time he caught Arthur stroking himself to solitary relief, Merlin had arrived unannounced and unnoticed. He should have spoken out but since that first time he had dreamed of Arthur, and of Arthur's strong hands that wielded a sword with such precision, and his soft almost pouting lips, golden hair and sparkling blue eyes, and he was lost. He remained silent and watched through a slit in the heavy drapes that surrounded the bed, biting into his own cheek to avoid being overhead as he fumbled beneath his rough-spun tunic. His hand had matched Arthur's stroke for stroke, coming within seconds of his king.

Although he might have wished for it, there was no third time.

Morgana raised her army, and Mordred joined her, and all of Merlin's magic could not help him save the man he loved.

As he wandered through the centuries, taking whatever form served his purpose best - sometimes an old man, stooped and gnarly, other times the young man who had served at Arthur's side - Merlin hoped that the prophesy would one day come true, and he would find Arthur again. He saw many wars, each time wondering if this would be the time when Albion needed Arthur most, but even the Great War and the second World War that followed close on its heels did not stir the magic into reincarnating his lost love.

The Time of Dragons had passed and although no longer outlawed, magic had been reduced to party tricks and sleight of hand.

Three more centuries of technology demystified the universe, sending men to the stars to colonize the moon and Mars, and still he saw no sign of Arthur Pendragon's return. For almost a thousand years he retold the legend of King Arthur, slowly seeing it slip from history into the realms of mythology, like the stories of Ancient Gods. The old ways were lost and the Druids were gone.

Each night he made a comfortable bed deep in the woods or forests, or under a sky full of stars in a clearing beside a babbling brook, or beneath a hedgerow that formed a boundary between the fields. Each time he was grateful that modern man had stopped his destruction of the natural world before all the magic in the land was lost, and each night he lay down and thought of Arthur.

His memory was as clear now as it had been a thousand years earlier, and he would sink into those memories of Arthur - the teasing and laughter, the fear and bravery - the affection that Arthur had never been able to hide from him, and for him. He would remember the way Arthur's hand had unknowingly brought both of them to relief that night, and how Arthur had fallen asleep afterwards with a single name sighing from his lips - Merlin.

Times had changed, and what was once looked upon in disgust and which had meant certain death if caught, had become a matter of choice; a man and woman, a woman and woman, a man with a man. In this modern world he could reach for Arthur and touch him intimately. He could kiss the pout from his lips and sate a hunger that still haunted him a thousand years later.

That night as he lay looking up at the stars, he saw streaks of light but knew it was no meteor shower. Flashes of light flickered on the horizon in all directions and he gasped suddenly as the magic surged inside him. The Earth cried out to him and he felt a shift in the veil between worlds. With his heart beating wildly, he sensed Arthur's presence back on this plane.

The Time of Dragons had returned.

END

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End file.
